Saturday 12 October 2013

Losing The Plot - Among Other Things

It's that time of year again. You know the time I mean - the time when absolutely everything simultaneously explodes out of the woodwork and clobbers you over the head with clashing schedules, suspiciously short deadlines, and what you sincerely hope is some manner of herring.

Out here in the world of university, strangely enough, I'm finding this a bit more manageable - with less rigidity in my schedule I'm somewhat more free to balance things to suit me best, rather than having to cram in my disasters around the whims of my temperamental timetable.

If anyone, however, has the slightest interest in having a look at my new home and all the oddments within it, I recently made a video about it on my YouTube channel, suitably entitled A Student's Life For Me! 

However, now that I've got things (slightly) more under control, I am intending to get this wee bloggybeast moving again. 

Not in the least because it's less than a month until NaNoWriMo . . . and I'm in trouble. Again.

Anyone who knows me will know that, on a scale of one to neurotic, I take the cake, biscuit, and almost every other manner of sugar-coated baked good under the sun when it comes to my need for plot and structure.

Thus, in my three years of NaNo-ing, I have always spent the run-up to the month working on the background, setting and finalising stylistic decisions on an idea I have probably chosen some time in the middle of April. The ensuing 50,000+ words are still about as legible as a dyslexic version of the Rosetta Stone, but, at least, I do normally manage to have a vaguely discernable plot and character arcs.

This year? Not a thing. Then again, this year has been much more hectic for me than most - than any, actually, that I can recall so far.

So, while I have plenty of ideas for NaNo, I have no idea which one I am going to choose to work with. You may advise me to set them all aside and do something else entirely, but sadly my creative spontaneity does not work that fast, and I could not 'pants' a novel even if it were to spare myself an unending eternity drowning in lumpy custard.

However, I have a plan. A fiendishly clever plan.

. . . And you'll have to tune in next week to find out what it is! A warning - it involves a pencil, a sausage roll, a pair of scissors, a packet of tasty cinnamon cereal, and a reprehensible abuse of highlighter pens.

~ Charley R

5 comments:

  1. Color me intrigued! :) I'd love to know what tasty cinnamon cereal has to do with . . . all the other stuff you said.

    By the way, are you on the YWP or the adult program? :/ I'm on both this year, since I turned thirteen in April! :) Do you want to be buddies? My username is "sportakate".

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    1. Haha, wait and see!

      I'm on the adult program, seeing as I'm a big scary 18 year old now. I shall be sure to add you, however!

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  2. This sounds simultaneously awesome and really freaky. As you know, I find nothing more exciting than throwing myself into a novel about which I know nothing. However, I can identify with not having any idea-- the feeling of sudden doom as you resign yourself to a slow death of plot-less-ness is horrible. I hope you figure this out, and if all else fails, I hope pantsing through this month doesn't come to a disastrous end.

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  3. School and NaNo have mixing issues. Can't wait to learn what your plain is.

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